Category: HealthTech and DigitalHealth

paydirekt might get €300 Million from its founders. It is estimated that paydirekt has already received €100 Million. At the same time, paydirekt’s CEO, Niklas Bartelt, should be replaced (from Süddeutsche). paydirekt was founded by a couple of German banks in 2015 and offers C2C and online B2C payments. Martin Zielke, board chairman of Commerzbank, argued back in 2015 that paydirekt was not founded with the idea of replacing the competition, but rather co-existing with them as — so Zielke — the online payment space has room for more than one company (from Süddeutsche). I agree with Zielke, but it is also a very undifferentiated market where people won’t switch unless given a very good reason. The most significant reason in C2B is network size, i. e. how many shops support the system. This significance of network size implies the vital role of pull marketing; there is little use in convincing people to sign-up for a new service now, so that they can use it later. Instead, people will access an online shop, realize that there is a payment solution they do not have – but need – and thus sign-up for that very service. paydirekt’s push marketing questionable This

Cara is „Your personal food and symptom diary“ with which you can track your stool’s condition, your digestion, mental situation and the food you consume. Based on this information the app provides you recommendations on how to adapt your lifestyle and offers you tailor-made medicine called „Cara Biotics“ against your gut issues. Recently, the company behind the app received a two million dollar investment (link in German). This means that Cara operates in three markets: AI-based drug discovery Health tracking: stool’s condition, you digestion, mental situation and the food you consume Health treatment: recommendations and Cara Biotics Let’s first examine health tracking and treatment. Health tracking For this use case, the Cara app is simply a diary. There are two issues with that. Firstly, switching costs. Users can extremely easy switch between other apps especially as Cara allows you to export your data. However, data is what could lock people into the app, provided that they allocate enough of it. And this is the second issue; habitual usage. For Cara to be of real value users must use it frequently. Convincing people to use it regularly will be very difficult but not impossible.The Hook Model offers an interesting insight into